The Library
Relative per capita income levels in the United Kingdom and the United States since 1870: Reconciling time-series projections and direct-benchmark estimates
Tools
UNSPECIFIED (2003) Relative per capita income levels in the United Kingdom and the United States since 1870: Reconciling time-series projections and direct-benchmark estimates. JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY, 63 (3). pp. 852-863. ISSN 0022-0507.
Research output not available from this repository.
Request-a-Copy directly from author or use local Library Get it For Me service.
Abstract
There are currently two ways of estimating relative levels of per capita income back to the nineteenth century. The most commonly adopted approach, popularized in particular by Angus Maddison and labeled "long-span" estimates by Marianne Ward and John Devereux, is to use time-series projection from a recent benchmark.(1) The alternative procedure, labeled "direct estimates" by Ward and Devereux, is to use direct benchmark estimates for earlier years. Ward and Devereux provide some new "direct estimates" which they claim over-turn the conventional chronology of U.K./U.S. relative per capita income levels for the period 1870-1990, derived using "long-span" projections. One important purpose of this note is to dispute the new estimates, and hence to reassert the conventional chronology. Along the way, however, I wish also to make a more general methodological point about the use of time series projections and direct benchmark estimates of relative per capita income levels. In my view, it is unsatisfactory for researchers to note a large discrepancy and simply claim the superiority of one type of evidence over the other. Rather, a satisfactory account of the evolution of relative per capita incomes over a long period should be able to encompass both sorts of evidence.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions D History General and Old World H Social Sciences |
||||
Journal or Publication Title: | JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY | ||||
Publisher: | CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS | ||||
ISSN: | 0022-0507 | ||||
Official Date: | September 2003 | ||||
Dates: |
|
||||
Volume: | 63 | ||||
Number: | 3 | ||||
Number of Pages: | 12 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 852-863 | ||||
Publication Status: | Published |
Data sourced from Thomson Reuters' Web of Knowledge
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
View Item |